


Gay Without Listening to Abba

by Culumacilinte



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [8]
Category: Sweet (2000)
Genre: M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Pining, Short & Sweet, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 20:57:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14340759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Culumacilinte/pseuds/Culumacilinte
Summary: Stitch is shit at being gay, and stupidly in love with his stupid best mate





	Gay Without Listening to Abba

They’ve known each other for years before Pete sees Stitch trying, ineptly, to chat up a girl in his presence. ‘But you’re gay, ain’t you?’ he asks when the girl had gone off, his stupid honest Pete face screwed up in confusion.

‘I–’ Stitch is braced for a moment to deny it, an old ground-in reflex, the same thing that makes him occasionally, badly, try to flirt with a girl at a club or a coffee shop, and then stopping because what’s the point? ‘Well, yeah. How’d you know? I never told you.’

And if Pete is aware of the note of accusation, the faint frisson of paranoia there in Stitch’s voice, he probably just writes it off as one of Stitch’s amusing eccentricities, the way he does with most of the things Stitch does that are actual normal things that actual normal people do. It’s the weird stuff that Pete takes in stride. He shrugs. ‘You can just tell, can’t you?’

‘I don’t listen to Abba’, Stitch says, pointlessly. ‘And I can’t dance.’

‘Y’don’t have to listen to Abba be gay! Or be gay to listen to Abba, otherwise me Auntie Lynn’s  _well_  in for a shock! I’ll have to let Uncle Jerry know she’s a lezzer!‘ He cackles at that, like Pete does at his own jokes, and Stitch can’t help but snicker as well, because Pete’s jokes shouldn’t be funny but somehow he makes them, every time. ‘And you can too dance; I’ve seen you out there, shakin’ your booty.’

He’s still laughing when he goes in for a cheeky grope of Stitch’s bum, and Stitch swats his hand away like reflex, snaps, ‘Don’t touch me’, and watches the laughter flash into uncomprehending hurt.

He turns it into a joke, because he can’t not, because Pete’s eyes when he’s laughing or grinning up at Stitch like he’s the best thing in the world, like he’s  _Pete’s_ , kind of turn Stitch’s insides to mush, and he’s not nearly as much of a bastard as he sometimes wishes he was.

For a while after that, he thinks that Pete must know. He’s got to know, right? That had to be, like, a subtle way of going, hey so I know you fancy me. He picked up on the fact that Stitch is gay, and seriously, Stitch is the worst at being gay; gay men can’t tell he’s gay. He’s not that much sure he’d be better at being straight, honestly, but at least the social scene is less daunting. But… he shows no sign of it. He looks at Stitch the same way he’s always done, gets stupid drunk with Stitch and insists on dancing with him when there’s no music playing the same way he’s always done, flirts outrageously with girls the same way he’s always done and hisses appreciative commentary about them to Stitch when they’re coming or going. 

He  _doesn’t_. And it’s fucking ridiculous. Because Stitch feels like he’s got a neon sign eternally over his head flashing HOPELESSLY IN LOVE WITH PETE SWEET for everyone to see, and he’s pretty sure that at least a few of their mutual acquaintances do know. But not Pete. 

The thing about Pete, he’s decided, is that Pete does everything with boundless, ridiculous enthusiasm. Everything. And it’s the same with love. When Pete loves someone, whether it’s his gran or his latest girlfriend or his best mate, it’s entirely and completely and without any shame. The other thing about Pete is that he is a bit thick, and isn’t always great at realising that he’s a bit of a weirdo. So if he should happen to catch Stitch gazing at him like the sighing, pining heroine of a D.H. Lawrence novel, it probably makes sense in his head that, oh, of course Stitch loves me, I’m his best mate.

Or something.

Honestly, Pete doesn’t make sense to Stitch half the time. It’s kinda why he loves him. It’ll probably be the death of Stitch by the time he’s thirty, but there it is.

 


End file.
